So many books…

“So many books, so little time.” ~ Frank Zappa

I will never get to read all the books I want to read. It is just a simple fact of time versus volume. Volume wins on this occasion, there are just simply too many good books and not enough hours in a lifetime to read them all. That does not mean I won’t happily spend as much time as possible trying to read as many as I possibly can and some of them I will even reread multiple times but all of them, sadly I will eventually run out of time

Some books deserve more than one pass through. Those tends to be the ones that truly leave their mark on your for whatever reason. Some examples of that for me are…

• Gone with the Wind – Read that multiple times in fact
• To Kill a Mocking bird – Read that at school but then reread it in my 20’s and then my 40’s. I got something new from it every time.
• I know why the caged bird sings – Again read that in my teens and then again in my 20’s and my 40’s. Like TKAMB reading it as different times in my life it impacted me in different ways each time
• A Town like Alice – Oh my heart. I LOVE this book so much and I suspect I will definitely read it again in the next year or so.
• My Cousin Rachel, Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek. – My favourite and the best du Maurier book in my opinion is My Cousin Rachel. It is dark and sinister in all the right ways but the others are great too. Again I am sure I will reread them all at some point.
• Jane Eyre – Another one I read in my early teens and then again in my 20’s. It is on my current TBR pile as I definitely think I need to reread it now.
• The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – Again, oh my heart. I might reread this again this years as the last time I read it was to my kids about 15 years ago.

Talking of childhood reads. One of the many joys of having children has been sharing books with them over the years. I read to them every single night at bedtime for years. My daughter ‘fired’ me as a reader when she was about 4 as she said I was too slow and she wanted to read herself but my son loved to be read to and I would still often read to him all the way through primary school. I have no idea if I will ever be a Grandmother but if I am I look forward to the reading part of having little ones again very much.

I don’t really know why but during the first few years of my 40’s I kinda gave up reading. Instead of reading multiple books a year like I had done all my life I was reading 3 or maybe 4. I am still not sure why, somehow I just got out of the habit and I also think my phone and social medial is somewhat to blame as time I spent reading somehow seemed to get sucked up with being online.

Weirdly the pandemic helped me to properly reconnect with reading and books again. Since I could very first read as a child books have always been my friends. They were worlds to see, adventures to have, emotions and relationships to explore. They were safe and happy and exciting and comforting. In the last 3 or so years I have found my way back to that and it has totally reignited my love of books and stories. Books are again my friends. A safe place. Reading helps calm and relax me.

In the last few years I have also discovered that I read much faster on a kindle or on my phone which is actually sad because I love the whole feel and connection with a physical book but I have to admit that I love my Kindle very much. I can pop that into my bag and have multiple books at my fingers tips. They are particularity brilliant for travelling.

I have also recently discovered Borrow Box on my phone which I access through my local library membership. There are 1000 of e-books and audio books on there and I have been using it a lot. I find that having multiple devices to read on means I also read more. For example I am currently reading 2 physical books, an e-book on my phone from the library, an audio book on my phone, also from the library, and I have about 8 books waiting for me on my kindle. I find the different devices and physical books means I always have something to hand so I can read a chapter while I am making a cup of tea or sitting on the loo because I always have my phone with me and then curl up with a physical book on the sofa in the evening. Also audio books are great for driving.

Last year I set myself a reading goal on Goodreads. I wanted to read 24 books in a year. I thought 2 a month was a totally doable goal considering the year before I had managed 18. Much to my surprise I smashed that goal and by the end of the year had read 42 books. My goal for this year is 42 as repeating that seems realistic but I am off to a good start and have read 11 books so far this year already. If I managed to read 52 by the end of the year I would be absolutely thrilled. That would be a book a week on average. I will let you know how I do.

I have not really written much here about books over the years but sometimes I think I should. Recently Brigit Delaney has got me thinking about combining my love of books with my blog a bit more as she has made books a feature of her February Photofest and I have been thoroughly enjoying her posts but if you have come here for kinky, sexy smut are you really wanting to find bookish content in the mix too? However if you are interested in my thoughts on the books I have read and what I am currently reading you can find it on Goodreads

The one thing that is missing in my life though is a book I have written. They say everyone has at least one book in them but sometimes I am not sure I believe that. I think some people are just meant to be readers, not writers and that is absolutely OK. It it funny writing that though when clearly I am a writer and it is how I make most of my living but writing a blog post or a short story is a very different thing than writing a novel. I would love to do it one day but also I really have no idea where to start. I have a few outlines for stories but my biggest problem is endings. I feel like I need some sort of conclusion to work towards and all the ideas I have seem to lack an ending. Also I have the initial idea but when I try to flesh that out with a longer plan/over view I nearly always decide that the idea/story is boring. I have been told I am wrong and yet I can’t seem to get past it.

I have absolutely no confidence whatsoever in my ability to write a book and I hugely envy and admire those who have done so. I won’t ever truly give up the dream of doing it though. It is after all a thing I have wanted to do since I was a little girl curled up in the corner of the local book shop surrounded by books trying to decide which one I would get with my pocket money. I wanted to write books. Actually I wanted to own a book shop and sit behind the counter and write books while I managed the shop. Pretty sure I am not ever going to own a book shop and as I have got older I become more resigned to the fact that I am probably never going to write a book but you know what, that is OK, because it means I have much more time to read all the amazing books that other people have written.